Fans of Jessica Pegula now have one concern ahead of her match against Emma Raducanu at the China Open

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Jessica Pegula may need to be wary about something ahead of her upcoming match with Emma Raducanu at the China Open.

Pegula struggled at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, where she only won two of her singles matches.

The American appears to have returned to form at the China Open, where she is now only focusing on singles after Pegula lost in the doubles event.

Pegula claimed she felt more popular in China this year, but her fans have suggested they fear that may not be the case for her next match.

Jessica Pegula fans fear that Emma Raducanu will be the heavy crowd favourite at the China Open

You would think that after Pegula beat three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Ajla Tomljanovic, 6-0 6-3, her fans would feel confident ahead of her next match against Raducanu.

However, there appears to be a worry amongst the Pegula fanbase, which came about when Raducanu spoke in Mandarin to the Beijing crowd after her straight sets victory over Cristina Bucsa.

Raducanu’s mother is Chinese and therefore she has learnt Mandarin alongside English growing up, which some fans of Pegula have suggested will make her the big crowd favourite when they play one another.

One person wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Emma spoke in Chinese in the interview??? We’re cooked Jessie fans.”

Another Pegula fan responded, “Yeah we will have zero support.”

Fans of Raducanu also appeared to notice this opportunity for their favourite player to benefit from her multilinguistic skills, “Watch out jpeg [Jessica Pegula].”

Another person said, “Emma doing her on court interview in Mandarin to secure the crowd support against Pegula in Beijing.”

One other social media user wrote, “Get that home crowd advantage let’s goo Emmita [Emma].”

Jessica Pegula vs Emma Raducanu Head-to-Head

While Pegula may not necessarily have the crowd on side in Beijing, she does have the advantage in the head-to-head against Raducanu.

This will be a fourth meeting between the pair, with Pegula winning two out of their three previous matches.

The most recent of those came in March earlier this year, where Pegula beat Raducanu in the Miami Open quarterfinals.

It is notable that Raducanu’s only win over Pegula came on grass in Eastbourne, where she had the majority of the crowd support as the home player.

Raducanu will be hoping for a similar outcome to that match when she takes on fifth seed Pegula at the China Open on Monday, September 29.